Beyond the Streets' original alternative tour!
Whitechapel Women:
The alternative history tour exploring their lives; not their ends.
Mary Ann.
Annie.
Elizabeth.
Catherine.
Mary Jane.
Tell her story in history.
Did you know, there is a large portion of east London tourism centred around the murderer, Jack the Ripper, or what we prefer: the ‘unidentified murderer’?
This tourism mostly constitutes walking tours which visit the locations where the murders took place, showing gruesome photos, and dehumanising the women he violently killed for entertainment.
In 2017, Beyond the Streets joined with local activists and was the first organisation to subvert this dominant narrative by offering a regular walking tour telling an alternative history of events in Whitechapel. This tour focused on the lives and amazing resilience of these women.
The tour looks at the multiple disadvantage these women lived with, including poor housing, poverty, substance misuse, coercion, domestic violence and for some, survival sex.
The tour also raises awareness of the women who are selling sex in the same area and how these women face similar challenges and stigma today and the work Beyond the Streets is doing to change the narrative.
recommended walking tour.
Name: Mary Ann 'Polly' Nichols
Date of Birth: 26th August 1845
Place of Birth: Near Fleet Street
Spouse: William Nichols
Children: William, Edward, George, Alice
Name: Annie Eliza Chapman
Date of Birth: September 1841
Place of Birth: London
Spouse: John Chapman
Children: Emily, Ellen, Annie, Georgina, George, Miriam, John (nearly all died in infancy)
Name: Elizabeth Stride
Date of Birth: 27th November 1843
Place of Birth: Torslanda, Sweden
Spouse: William Stride
Children: None
Name: Catherine ‘Conway’ Eddowes
Date of Birth: 14th April 1842
Place of Birth: Wolverhampton
Spouse: Thomas Conway (common law husband)
Children: Catherine, Thomas, Harriet, George, and Fredrick
Name: Mary Jane Kelly?
Date of Birth: 1863
Place of Birth: Unknown – possibly Irish or Welsh
Spouse: None Known
Children: None Known
In Memory of Sophie
“THE KINDEST, FUNNIEST AND MOST FABULOUS PERSON IN ANY ROOM”
Sophie supported the work of Beyond the Streets and helped organise a fantastic fundraiser coinciding with the launch of “Jack the Ripper: The Women of Whitechapel” by the English National Opera and the launch of the book “The Five” by Hallie Rubenhold. We are grateful to have been lucky enough to have known Sophie, and for the generosity of her family and friends which have made this project possible.